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Green Tomato Catsup

A preserved green tomato ketchup made with onions, spices, brown sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Green Tomato Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Layer the green tomatoes and onions in a container, sprinkling coarse sea salt between layers. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

  2. Drain the mixture.

Cook and bottle

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the drained mixture with mustard seed, allspice, cloves, ground mustard, ground ginger, black pepper, celery seed, and brown sugar.

  2. Cover with vinegar and boil for 2 hours.

  3. Strain through a sieve and bottle for use.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk and tart flavour that forms the body of the ketchup.
Onions
Add savoury depth and body as they soften during the long simmer.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and tart tomatoes.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the ketchup.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp flavour that lingers through the long cooking.

The step that matters

Draining after salting. Salting draws water out of the tomatoes and onions. Draining well removes that liquid, so the ketchup thickens properly during the long boil instead of turning thin and watery.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, mustard, allspice, clove, ginger, pepper, celery):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, allspice, clove, ginger, pepper, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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